


Rebellion Against Conforming

by StevetheIcecube



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Adventures - Various Authors
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Eighth Doctor, Other, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2808413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything was sort of okay until The Law was passed. Fitz finds himself on the run with hardly any money. Magie finds themselves on the run with no money at all. He's interested in survival, they're interested in rebellion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Oppression

Fitz had been sleeping rough for seven months now. It wasn't too hard for him, he had to keep moving anyway. He had to make sure no one picked up on him before he had the chance to leave.

This was just life to him. Seven months ago, The Law was passed. Seven months ago, he had a month to get everything sorted out so he could keep on living free.

Was he really living free? He wasn't physically a captive of anyone, which was a big plus. There were people who were. But he was trapped. He didn't have rights. He'd probably never have rights again. Such was the way of the modern world. No one had rights, but the lack of rights for his people was visible. Everyone knew.

Everyone hated his people. It was just a way of life for them.

Hate the magic people, fear what they can do to you, but don't fear street magicians. No WAY that they could be magical people. Of course not. Nope.

Fitz could use that, though. He was a travelling artist of deception now. Magician would be asking for trouble. And the police being called.

He could use that to make money on the road, maintain his finances. He lived in a car with a safe filled with all his money and precious belongings.

He did tricks in the street. Nothing which would make anyone scared, just silly but impressive things. People would give him money for his good performances, and he'd move on after a week or so, depending on how many people had been watching and looking suspicious.  
It was tiring. He hated it so much, hated that he had to live without a house, without an identity, but he had to do it. The alternative was worse.

\-----------

They winced as they watched from far away, watched as their people were forced to paint over their work. Winced as they could see the pain in their eyes and in their very bodies.

Their people should not have to suffer in this way. They should not have to hide from view as they silently opposed their oppression.

Their oppression was so natural. It felt natural even to them that they would be spat on in the streets when they spoke out, or kicked out of shops when they lost a hint of their fragile control (it had to be them who was plagued with bad control, didn't it? The people who wanted their rights were always saying 'you don't need to be scared of us, we all have really good control', and they felt like they were letting the side down because they couldn't control themselves).

Being chased at night was natural. Second nature to run from the police. The pain they had to go through every day was as natural as anything (most of the pain was natural. They seemed to have higher innate magic levels than most magical people, and that hurt their insides). It had been natural now for seven months, and it was probably going to stay that way.

They hated it. They'd always hated society. The social stuff, the ideas, the toxic ideas that were given to everyone from the moment they were born. They'd always wanted to defy it. Before, they'd done it by growing their hair long. It had been long and curly and they'd refused to answer to a name they didn't choose for themselves (they went by usually three at a time, depending on how they were feeling), they'd worn dresses one day and suits the next. They'd played with the social norms as much as they pleased and generally tried to make everyone angry. They refused to talk for two months (and then something happened and they didn't speak for another six because of trauma), or they didn't eat for a week. Everyone was worried and they just didn't care. They were a shambles. Half of the things they did in rebellion weren't intentional.

That didn't stop them from shaving half of their hair off when The Law was announced, and dying what was left purple. And then half of that green. They got a tattoo, symbols of magic, the symbol that their people were using as a sign that they would not be stamped out. They got it tattooed on their neck, all around their neck and over their shoulders and collar bone and upper back.  
They liked it. They liked being the rebel. They would not be silenced. They would be heard.


	2. Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fitz meets Magie under some rather unusual circumstances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Featuring my bad chapter titles. There's another small reference to the thing that happened to Magie that caused a lot of trauma, actually, but I didn't realise it so I don't think it counts XD and the snark is strong in this one.

Fitz was going about his usual business when he felt a presence of someone magical. He felt these quite a lot, they were common on the road. Some people managed to hide it, because that's what they'd always done. Fitz's parents, however, knew. They just gave him the diving lessons and the money they could afford to spend without looking suspicious. It was good enough, and he loved them for it. He hoped they were okay, but he had no way to check back in with them. Magic hated technology and the stuff just wanted to break when he used it. His phone had frazzled months ago. He was glad the safe wasn't electric. It had always been a pain for his parents, the magic. They put up with it throughout everything, though. And now they were essentially gone. They might even have been arrested.

He could sense a magic person nearby. It was a thing that never turned itself off really. If he tried, he could feel every spark of magic being used for miles and miles. It was useful for finding a safe place if he needed it.

But this one was strong. They used magic often, maybe. And the signal was getting closer. It was probably homing in on him. He might have to deal with another magic person in a minute, and most of the ones he'd seen in the last two months were very run down. He supposed that he was getting run down too, he probably looked like a tramp.

Then he spotted the obviously magic person. He almost stopped in the middle of his trick. This person had to get out of here. They'd get him caught, for God's sake.

He'd never SEEN someone so…outside the norm. Wild half shaved hair dyed two different colours, but it had clearly been growing back in the seven months since The Law. They…was that the sign of magical pride tattooed all over their neck. How STUPID were they? How were they even FREE? And they were just sitting on a bench without a care in the world, their eyes fixed on Fitz for the whole time, for the next two hours of magic tricks that barely needed any concentration from Fitz to work. He knew them all and the flow of the magic by heart.  
When he was done and the crowd had dispersed, the person bounded up.

"Hi," they said with a huge grin, "I'm Magieleben. Why are you here?"

Magieleben. Fucking MAGIELEBEN. Who the fuck was this kid. Magic lives. Wow. Rebellious and can use Google Translate.

Fitz laughed. "Magie, then? I'm not calling you magic lives."

Magie shrugged and smiled. "Go on then. Who are you?"

"Fitz." He said, starting back to his car. "And keep your voice down. At this rate, I'll have to leave tonight, and I only just got here."

"Why?" God. They were so innocent. And so stupid.

"Magic. I can't stay if people see me with such a rebel."

"But you were practising in public! Aren't you proud of what you have? You were showing off your skill, even if you aren't very skilled because that was some boring magic. You should levitate yourself instead. Maybe get some fire in there. Make animals appear in front of the audience. Fireproof your audience and show them the inside of a fire. Dream big, Fitz."

This kid was an activist and a half. "Dangerous." He said.

Magie laughed. "You can do that! You could probably do that when you were six. I could do it when I was four but I was a fast developer. And I burned someone and had to learn. You have to be open, or we're just going to stay oppressed!"

"We're staying oppressed, Magie. It isn't going to stop because one politician knows we can control ourselves."

Magie shrugged. "We deserve freedom. We might not get it, but I'm going to pretend we do."

Fitz had been walking at a brisk pace to his car, and at that moment he was very glad he was. Because that was the moment when Magie said 'why is everything spinning?' And then they hit the pavement.

\---------------------------

When Magie woke up, their stomach hurt. It ached everywhere, as did their muscles and everything, and their throat was dry and their head hurt too.  
They hadn't eaten in too long. But they didn't have any money, they couldn't eat and they couldn't use public services for anything.

They were lying spread across three seats. They could feel the ridges digging in to their side. But it was still more comfortable than a doorstep. There was even a blanket over them, and someone magical very close…that was nice. Soothing. They'd not been able to be close to other magical people for a while.

They turned over and groaned. It hurt. Fitz turned around in the front seat.

"You awake this time, Magie?"

"Yeah." They rasped. They were really thirsty…

"Do you need something to drink?" He asked.

"Please." They managed, and they felt the magic in the air lessen as Fitz pulled the car over and reached for a cool box on the seat next to him and pulled out a bottle.

"Can you sit up to drink yourself?" They nodded and sat up, reaching for the bottle. Everything hurt, except the water. It was like a dry river had a new flow. They'd been so thirsty…

"Thank you." They said, handing back the almost completely empty bottle. Fitz smiled at them.

"Did you pass out?" He asked.

Magie shrugged. They supposed so. They didn't remember what the last thing they ate was. They'd had to root around in rubbish for about…seven months now. They'd never had any money to start with. Living like this was the worst and they wanted to change that. They wanted to be able to go to a homeless shelter and eat something that wasn't from the bins for once. Was that too much to ask?

No. No it fucking isn't too much to ask.

"Yeah." They said. "That's how it is." They paused as the car started moving again when the magic in the air picked up. "Where are you taking me? If you're working for them, I will take you down."

Fitz laughed. "Take me down. What are you, twelve? And in all seriousness, I'm sorry Magie, but you just passed out for over twelve hours. You're not going to be able to take me down."

Magie frowned. Fitz had a point. "Have you been diving for twelve hours?"

"I'm magic, but I'm not that magic." Fitz said. "I've been buying coffee every hour or so for the last four hours, and I took regular breaks. If you can stay awake, I'd like to sleep soon."

Magie smiled. "What do I have to do?"

Fitz shrugged. "It's easy. You don't even have to think about it. Keep it moving. Go on."

The magic from Fitz in the air lessened slightly. It left a sour feeling to the space, but they were keeping the car up with no effort.

"It's like driving a car on a video game. Easy." Fitz said.

"How do you know I won't crash it and kill you?" They asked. Looking at Fitz made them want to have his trust. There must have been something in that water (no no no). They weren't hurting as much any more, and they were pretty sure they'd be able to take over from Fitz and let him sleep.

"I lied when I said the idea of you taking me down was stupid. You could snap me like a twig with magic." He said sadly. "I'm out of practise for much more than simple tricks and a few easy things. Also, I'm exhausted. You just woke up and downed a bottle of water and you're basically recovered. And you clearly use magic way more than I do. Even like that, if you'd wanted to kill me, you could have done it five minutes ago."

That was probably true, so Magie just nodded. "Are we going to swap places then?"

Fitz grinned. "If you go in the front seat, we'll be pulled over within three minutes. I'll stick over here. When we get to the other side of Berkshire, wake me up."

"So that's where we're going?" They asked.

"Yeah." He said. He sounded pretty subdued.

He dropped off to sleep quickly after that, leaving Magie to drive on through the night.


	3. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fitz decided that he needed to go home. It was a mistake.

Magie did, actually, wake Fitz up at the right time. He was surprised. He'd thought Magie would just keep on driving despite not actually knowing where they were going. They seemed like the kind of person who would refuse any help.

Fitz yawned and stretched, but not too much. He was in the front seat, he couldn't be waking up. At least not visibly. Magie probably set off more than a few warning bells with people, but people were fond of just ignoring his people and just letting them get along with their lives. Unless they thought that they were actually getting somewhere with rights, or even mildly existing openly, in which case they were poisonous and dangerous and shouldn't be free.

Fitz felt like Magie was rubbing off on him already, but he was probably just bitter. Very bitter.

"Good morning." Fitz said groggily. "Have any trouble?"

Magie smiled. They looked a little pale. More pale than they had earlier. They had dark smudges under their eyes. "Nope. There were a few people who stared once or twice but did you get this car warded or something? Because no one did anything."

"Only loosely." He said. He wasn't powerful enough or rich enough to get proper warding. So it was just mild warding backed up by a couple of charms.

"Do you want to sleep now? Or get some food?" He suggested, remembering that Magie probably hadn't eaten in a while.

"Some food please. But not much. I haven't eaten in a while."

Fitz nodded and started looking for a petrol station or something he could pull in to. One that didn't have propaganda plastered all over it, hopefully. He wouldn't be able to take Magie anywhere otherwise. He found one after three or four roundabouts and one town. The hate had, thankfully, gone down to just a bit of simmering. In the first month of The Law, he'd been living on the money he'd been given because he just wouldn't be able to practise magic without being killed. This was when he saw arrests almost every day. He hadn't seen one for months now. They were all safely locked away, their potential rotting with their rights. Hm. Poetic.

"Do you want anything in particular?" He asked as he stopped in a parking space. "Also, could you use something to short the camera out?"

"Orange juice?" They suggested. "And done."

Fitz nodded and went into the shop.

He got orange juice and a few sandwiches and a packet of teeth cleaning chewing gum (he didn't want to look at Magie's teeth but he'd bet that they were bad) before realising that leaving Magie in the car on their own was probably not a good idea.

"Are you one of them too?" The man at the counter asked when he took his food up, nodding towards the car.

Fitz shrugged. "You still have to let me buy this. It's illegal to refuse service."

"I could call the police." He said.

Fitz smiled and handed the money over before leaving.

"He might be calling the police let's go." Fitz said, tossing the food to Magie. Most of it hit the floor.

"Do I change the reading on the numberplate?" They asked, picking the food off the floor.

Fitz shrugged. "Why not?"

He drove on for a while, and they never once saw the police. Thankfully. Magie ate half of their sandwich before throwing most of it up, at which point Fitz decided that a, Magie had to go to sleep, b, Magie had to clean his car, and c, he'd picked up a broke kid with an eating disorder (he wasn't certain, but it was something about the way that they had picked at it that seemed reminiscent of Fitz's own delightful experience with bulimia (and also that was clearly someone who was used to throwing up frequently)) off the street and he was probably going to regret it.

\-----

When he arrived in his home town, he decided it was too late to back out. He wanted to see his mum and dad and no law was going to stop him.

He woke Magie up and handed them a piece of gum before filling them in.

"I'm going to my parents. Because I'm worried about them. You'll be coming in with me, but don't worry. They're chill and stuff. For reference purposes your pronouns are they and them, right?"

Magie grinned. "Yep." They were chewing a piece of gum which, apparently, they desperately needed. Especially now they'd vomited. Ew.

Fitz nodded. "Okay. I'll charm the car to be imperceivable for a bit."

The house was darker than it should be. That was a warning sign from the start. But his mum answered the door. Good.

She started crying. Not good.

"My Fitzie…" She said. "It's not a trick, is it? A way to tell them that you didn't kill yourself?"

Kill himself? Was that…?

"Mum." He said. "It's me, I promise."

"Come in, and your…friend…it isn't safe here. Not for your kind." She motioned for them to come in. Fitz wasn't quite sure that she believed him.

She got them both to sit down in the living room. It was a Sunday, Fitz noted from the calendar. His dad should be around.

"Is that calendar right?" He asked.

"You didn't call." She said. "Why didn't you call?"

She wasn't listening and dad wasn't here. He leaned over to where Magie was perching awkwardly on the edge of the sofa. "Something's wrong." He whispered when she went to get them some biscuits.

"I know." They said. "That calendar is almost three weeks out."

"How do you know that?" He asked. "Doesn't seem too off to me."

They tapped their nose. "How do we get out? Without her calling the police, anyway."

"I don't know." He said. He didn't want to admit that his mum might sell him out.

"We could knock her out and take everything useful from the house." They suggested cheerfully.

"Magie!" He nearly raised his voice. Bad idea. Don't do that.

"Why not?" They asked. "Something is wrong. Make use of it."

"Magie that's my mum!" He said.

"Really?" They squinted in the direction of the kitchen. "I thought you were German."

Fitz smiled. "My dad is German. He's meant to be here."

"Oh." They said. "Why isn't he in any of the photos?"

Magie was right. Fitz was in most of them, his mum was in more. There were ones of both sets of grandparents. But none of his dad.

"Let's knock her out." He decided. "You do it. Please."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I did this to your mum, Fitz (I'm also sorry I did stuff to you and Magie too).


	4. Ransack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fitz finds out the truth and nothing can be the same again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, from this chapter onwards, this is written in collaboration with Em, my datefriend.

Fitz didn't want to look when Magie decided to sock his mum over the head. He was pretty sure that wasn't actually what they did, but it was basically that. Nonetheless, she fell to the floor with a bruise on her head, and Magie ran straight to the cupboards to see what food they could plunder.

"Don't take everything, okay? My mum... She's not the most capable. She'll worry." Fitz stepped carefully over her unconscious form and went to help Magie choose food to take. "Take things she won't miss, and things that'll last a while."

"That's why I didn't go to the fridge." They said, pulling out three tins of soup from the cupboard. They squinted at the herbs on the top shelf. "We don't want those, do we?"

"You can't exactly eat a jar of herbs, so no. Leave those. Is there like tinned vegetables and meat and stuff?" He set to searching through a few cupboards of his own, collecting a small pile of tins.

They opened the door to the fridge. "Can I have an apple?" They asked. Fitz frowned at them. "I haven't had fresh fruit in so long."

"Sure, go ahead." He ducked into the cupboard under the sink to get some plastic bags for carrying all the food, backing away again at the sudden smell of very old bins. His mum hadn't been clearing things up, clearly. "Where the fuck is my dad..."

"We should probably check upstairs next anyway." They said. "Did you leave stuff here?"

"Not a lot. I'll go check upstairs and leave you with your apple." Magie seemed absolutely delighted by the fresh fruit, happily biting into it and rubbing the shiny surface on their sleeve.

After a moment, and a second glance at Fitz's mum lying on the floor, they took a few large bites into the apple (wincing at it connecting with their teeth. They should have taken better care of their teeth) and gently put the core on the side. They didn't want to open the bin. They stepped over her again on their way out of the kitchen, going to wander around the downstairs of the house a bit. It looked perfectly normal, but there was a distinctly...wrong feeling to it all. Nothing quite fit the way it should do. Everything was in place. But the phone didn't seem to have all the right lights on, and when they pressed the button on the TV it didn't even make a crackle like it would have if they'd just shorted it out. It was kinda cold, too, cold enough that even they could feel it through the warm glow of magic that always pulsed inside them. And there was something very, very off about that calendar. They didn't know the exact time of year. But they knew that the calendar there was all wrong. It had been seven months since the Law. They knew that. This calendar showed six and a bit. And there were little crosses on every day, but no events marked. Nothing for over a month, and then three simple words scribbled in blue biro. Magic rally today.

"Fitz!" They called. He came running down the stairs almost immediately with a practised pace. He'd lived here for a while. "Which of your parents wrote that?"  
He frowned at the words for a moment. "My dad. But...magic rally? Why was my dad going to a magic rally? He's just a regular human."

"There were rallies all over the place." They said. "Especially in the beginning. This is a really late one. I doubt many magic people would be there at all."

"Yeah, I know. I do keep up with this stuff. Give me a minute." He ran upstairs again, coming back down with an ancient laptop. "Hopefully this thing still has some charge left. The electricity seems to be out."

"You do it." They said. "I'll short it out on touch, probably."

"Yeah, I was going to." He booted it up, giving a frustrated sigh at the whirring of fans that were probably louder than small jet engines.

"Wait, if there's no electricity, how are you going to get internet access?" They asked.

"I know the password from next door." He said. "Because of my magic, I was always cutting the power in here. So I'd go round there and ask for the WiFi so I could do homework."

"Sneaky." Magie nodded, impressed. "I approve. I think the laptop is doing something, it's making a different noise."

Fitz removed his hands from the keyboard. He didn't want to try his luck. The noise quieted a bit, and then the main load screen managed to make it up. "Bloody finally," he muttered, and typed in his password. It took another ten minutes for his homescreen to appear, and another five to load up Google. "What's the date of that thing?" He asked.

"Um. May seventeenth." They said, squinting at it. When did their eyesight get bad, or was the light just dim in here?

"'Kay." They watched him type for a minute, staring at the screen and chewing on his lip anxiously. "It says there was a magic rally near here on May seventeenth, and a ton of people got arrested."

"I'm sorry." They said. They really were. They didn't know if Fitz knew what happened to most of the normal people who committed crimes to do with magic. They didn't think he wanted to know.

"Sorry? Why? Surely if my dad just got arrested, they'll let him out soon. He doesn't have any magic. He's not one of us. He's innocent."

They laughed. "Crime." They put on a fancy judge voice, which was a bit insensitive, but they were upset too. "Consorting or campaigning for magical peoples. Sentence. Death."

Fitz froze, staring at them, and Magie immediately regretted making it into a joke. They wanted to say sorry, but the look in Fitz's eyes kept shifting from anguish to disbelief to a horrible vengeful anger they didn't want to mess with.

"I'll kill them." He said quietly. "I'll kill them all. I swear." He looked down at them. They were so small, but they knew all these terrible things about the world he lived in.  
"That's the spirit." Magie patted him on the shoulder. He didn't respond, just repeating 'I'll kill them' again. "Fitz?"

"They killed my dad." He whispered. He didn't want to cry. He hadn't even seen his dad for seven months. His dad had only been alive for probably less than six of them.

"Yup. Fitz, it happens to the best of us. I haven't seen my parents in forever." They moved closer to him, draping an arm around his shoulders. "You're still alive. What more do you want?"

"I want my dad to be alive." He snapped. "I want my mum to be okay and not knocked out in the kitchen. I want to be a person..."

"You are a person. You're hardly an alien, or a robot, are you?" Magie leaned their head on his shoulder, not entirely sure how you were supposed to comfort people. "You'll get over it."

Fitz snorted. "What, did you get over not having rights? Do you just not care, in that empty stupid head of yours? Who am I kidding? You probably throw yourself into all this because you've given up caring about yourself."  
Magie flinched back, hurt. He was painful right, though. They didn't care about much. Not even themself, really. But, for some unfathomable reason, they cared about Fitz. So, they told him just that. Shouted it, more like.  
Fitz sighed. He'd picked a kid up off the street and now they'd gone and gotten attached to him. "Come on." He said dejectedly. "I bet there's some stuff upstairs we can use." Magie stayed sullenly sat on the sofa. "Come on," he repeated, pulling them up by their wrist. They followed him upstairs, not saying a word. "Look, I'm sorry, okay?" He said. "Go back to being chatty and mildly irritating. I like it." Still nothing. It appeared he'd gotten them into a sulk. "I said I'm sorry. What more do you want? I'm not getting down on my knees and begging for your forgiveness."

They laughed. "No, your trousers are too worn to do that anyway." They weren't going to mention their own rags of clothes. They were lucky they stole that big coat, because otherwise they'd freeze.

"They speak!" He pretended like it was a miracle, and wandered into his bedroom. "I'm going to pack some more clothes. Don't know about you, you're shorter than me."

They went across the hall to his mum's bedroom. And the bedroom his dad used to sleep in. "Your mum won't miss a few socks, will she?"

"Probably not." He rolled his eyes, and went to grab a few changes of clothes. The only thing he currently owned that wasn't worn out was his jacket, and that was only because it was actually good quality. Once he'd done that, he had a search for any memorabilia of his dad. It seemed as if every trace of him had been erased, though. Someone had been very thorough. He'd cry about that later, when he'd stopped stealing from his parents. His mum, anyway. She didn't look like she was in the best place, but he desperately needed the clothes and the food, especially if he was going to be caring for some kid.

Magie probably wasn't that much younger than him. A year or two at most, which put them somewhere around fifteen or sixteen. But they were so strange. Innocent to how the world worked, and yet more jaded than anyone Fitz had ever met before. He supposed, really, that he sort of liked them. He definitely felt a sense of responsibility for them. He was nearly an adult, anyway, he should be becoming more responsible. It wasn't like he'd be learning that at university.

They came back from his mum's room, arms full of socks. "You ready to go yet?" Their grin was so hopeful and full of life, Fitz could almost forget about feeling sad for a second when he saw it.

"Sure." He said. "Can I, um, can I just have a moment though? In their bedroom."

"Yeah." Magie stood around and waited in Fitz's room, wondering what he was doing. Crying? Stealing clothes? Who knew.

There was no sign of his dad. The only hint was the bed being double, when the duvet was only single. He sighed. "Bye Dad. Bye Mum. I love you both."

**Author's Note:**

> I think I did something a bit radical to Eight this time XD oops. (If anyone can guess what the thing that happened to them is then you get massive massive points because it isn't even hinted at yet)


End file.
